


using, again

by TaFuilLiom



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 12:21:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13589955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaFuilLiom/pseuds/TaFuilLiom
Summary: “M’ortuna m’uraka m’ujina. Our paths are not strangers.”Or, Maggie has met J'onn before, and gets her memory jogged.





	using, again

**Author's Note:**

> A product of my messy weekend of birthday celebrations, an edgy Slamdunk-worthy song, some headcanons about college!Alex and a single line from one of Roadie's fics (which I will link below because everyone should go and read it). 
> 
> tw// Drug use implied

Sitting in an empty conference room, Maggie spins slow circles in the chair. When she gets bored of that, she plants her boots on another chair and drums on her thighs to the song that played on the radio as she made the journey here. Eventually she drops her head back with a sigh, her stomach clenching with hunger pangs. 

She shoots up at the knock on the door. J’onn hovers with a box of donuts and a small smile on his face.

“I’m waiting on Alex to finish up knife practise. Thought I’d surprise her with lunch,” she explains, leaning back. She taps her watch. “Beginning to regret that thought...”

That smile grows. “That’s nice of you.” He raises the box. “Something to tide you over until then?”

She grins and sits up as he comes in and sets the box on the table, eagerly flipping open the top and reaching for a chocolate covered donut with chopped nuts on top.  

“Morale?”

“Yes, well.” He fixes his belt, pacing around the table. “The recruits tend to be somewhat discouraged after knife practise with Alex, so I decided to start buying something that would bolster them back up for duty.”

“Can’t imagine why,” Maggie teases.

He waves to the box. “Shredded hazelnut sprinkles are still your favourite, I assume?”

“Usually, I hate when you do that mind-reading thing,” she says, lifting the donut in a toast. “But this is one exception I’m happy to make.” 

He takes a seat opposite her. “No mind-reading required. You told me yourself.” 

Maggie freezes with the donut between her teeth, and then chews down slowly. She makes a noise of confusion through her mouthful, and for the first time since they’ve met, she hears him laugh. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this, because I didn’t sense any recognition from you when Alex introduced us, but we’ve met before.”

This time, Maggie stiffens mid-chew, almost choking on her donut. 

He takes one of the donuts from the box, inspecting the icing on the top. “A few years ago, I went to the local precinct because there was a girl in one of the cells that I needed to speak to...

~

_ Before _

Maggie had bought the donuts to make a good impression on her new colleagues, turning up to her shift early. Maybe she should have known better than to try and make friends on the graveyard shift. The station was practically empty; just her, the desk sergeant and a girl sobering up in the drunk tank.

She sighed, watching the highlights of President Mulligan’s State of the Union address from earlier that day, if they could be called that. 

“God, I hope Olivia Marsdin gets elected next year,” she muttered, taking off her cap and throwing it down beside the full box of donuts.  

“Her early poll numbers are optimistic,” a voice said, startling her. 

A tall man in a fine cut suit held up his hands. Clearing her throat, Maggie relaxed back into her slumped position. She fiddled with the lapel of her uniform, brushing off some lint and cursing herself for not being more aware of her surroundings.  

“Let me guess, you’re the lawyer for the girl in the tank?”

The man dropped his hands. “Not quite, but a fair assertion.” 

She glanced at him, and pushed the box towards the empty side of the round table she sat at. “Want one? I bought them for the station but it’s just me and Mulligan in here.” She threw her hand up in the direction of the TV.

Graciously, the man ducked his head, carefully sitting down on one of the empty chairs. He opened the box and took time choosing his donut. Satisfied with his selection, a bright pink and filled with strawberry-jam, he took a bite.  

The half-eaten donut that Maggie had been working on caught her attention. Around the halfway mark of the speech, the sugar had turned her stomach because of what Mulligan lamented about, but now she was tempted to finish it.

“I do want to speak to the girl in the cell, if that’s possible.”

Maggie looked at him fully now, quietly eating the donut. “Family member?” He shook his head, and she shrugged. “Billy is the desk sergeant tonight, and he’s pretty easy going. Can’t see why you can’t have a word with her.”

He nodded, licking sprinkles off of his thumb. She picked up her own half-finished donut, curiosity easing through. Gears creaked in her head as she came to some uneasy conclusions about the connection between a man in a fine cut suit, and a messed up young woman. 

“The girl in the cell, is she _ on _ something? We don’t tend to do any tests here, and she wasn’t exactly cooperating…” 

He made a face. “Not tonight.” 

Maggie clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth. “Pity. Young woman on a nosedive with no way to pull up.” 

As Mulligan’s speech came to a close and applause sounded, deserved or otherwise, Maggie clicked the volume down on the remote until it was just a murmur in the background.

“You know, you can take one in to her if you want. I was almost tempted to offer one myself, but I figured the thought would be wasted on a pillhead.” She polished off the one in her hand, cleaning her sticky fingertips with a crumpled napkin. “Although it might help her comedown, with the sugar and all.”

He grimaced. “She’s just a gifted young mind gone astray.” 

She smiled at the remark, those distasteful conclusions receding.“No reason she can’t be put back on the right path.” 

Her radio clicked and Miranda from the switchboard started reading out her first call of the night. Muting the TV altogether, Maggie stood and grabbed her cap. She smoothed down her hair and fixed it onto her head. The man closed the box and slid it towards her.

“You might need this,” he said cryptically.

She took him in again, narrowing her eyes. “On shift?”

“Yes,” he answered, revealing nothing more.

“Okay,” she said, shrugging and taking the box. “Good luck with the girl.” She paused at the door, popping open the lid and peering inside. “The hazelnut sprinkles are my favourite. Thank God there’s one left.”

As Maggie walked away, she heard his footsteps behind her, leading the other way. Her radio crackled once more, Miranda reading off a more urgent code. Excitement stirred in her gut as she pushed into the parking lot, heading for her cruiser. 

Maybe this was going to be a decent shift, after all.

~

_ Present _

The last of Maggie’s donut falls out of her mouth into her cupped palms as it all comes rushing back. 

“No way.” She sorts through the crumbling mess with her fingertips. “That night was pretty huge. I’d just moved to National City from Gotham. Bad breakup, bad job, I’d been spiralling, and I wanted a fresh start.”

He nods. “That’s what drew me to the break room. The pain was radiating off you.” Sighing, he takes the time to bite into his donut before continuing, “If I’m being honest, I was nervous to finally chance approaching this woman after such a long time watching from afar. I was concerned about whether I could get through to her or not.” 

She quirks an eyebrow at him. “Did...you want to use me as a dry run?” 

“I don’t think that’s what I said, Detective Sawyer.”

Maggie chuckles, shoving the rest of the crumbs from her palm into her mouth and wiping her hands down. She puts her elbows on the desk. “That night, I got a chance encounter with a guy who became my first informant.” 

It was all coming back to her, like recognising an image on a coloured canvas, the artwork finally making sense. J’onn listens intently as she shifts through the details in her mind. 

“He was a key witness to an armed robbery that turned nasty at a bodega near Otley Avenue. I gave him the rest of the donuts that were left. His tip offs got me introduced to the murder squad, and to Detective Lancaster, who requested me on their cordon for the next string of cases. A year later, he put in a good word for my promotion to detective. Things looked up.” 

“It seems like those donuts were exactly what you needed.”

Just then, Alex swings through the doorway, flipping open a long army blade and clicking it closed rhythmically. “These recruits get worse every week. I don’t know how much longer I can shout the same things at them before I start using  _ them _ as the targets.”

Maggie, amused, stands up. “Lunch on me?”

“Yes please,” Alex sighs. “Let me go grab my jacket.”

She plants a kiss on Maggie’s cheek and then she’s gone. Maggie knocks her knuckles on the table, looking at J’onn again, knowing he had watched the exchange. 

“Do you think it was a coincidence that we met? That night turned out to be pretty important to me, career wise. It got the ball rolling.”

“That was all you, Maggie. That being said…” J’onn tips his head, putting his hands together in front of him. “On Mars, there was a sect that believed that our paths in life may cut very close together and veer off several times before weaving together finally. It is said that these close encounters make the eventual crossing more powerful.” 

“Like karma or something?” 

“Or something,” he agrees. “ _ M’ortuna m’uraka m’ujina. _ Our paths are not strangers.” 

Maggie watches her girlfriend striding through the hallway outside towards the room. “Well, in that case, who was the girl in the drunk tank?”

Alex bounces on her toes as she enters the room. J’onn’s eyes sparkle as he pushes the box towards her. “Would you like one, Alex?”

In the space between Alex refusing and jerking towards the door, it hits Maggie like a ton of bricks. She spares one last, shocked glance at J’onn, who is nonplussed at her disbelief. 

“More powerful, huh?”

~

Later, Alex gently kisses the sweat from Maggie’s collarbone, a lazy smile on her lips. 

“Your mind is on something.”

“It’s on nothing right now,” Maggie says dreamily. 

“No,” Alex purrs, setting her chin on Maggie’s ribs. “But it was.”

Maggie folds the pillow behind her head, propping herself higher on it, and then drifting her hands through Alex’s hair. “You went to NCU, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I busted a few of those dorm parties back in the day.”

Alex inches up on her elbows. “No. You don’t think…?”

_ I know _ .

“Why didn’t you tell me you were a party girl at college?” Maggie says, grinning. “I always imagined you to be the studious nerd type.”

Alex drops her forehead to Maggie’s chest, her hair tickling along her ribs. “I wasn’t a party girl, I was getting messed up to ignore the pressures of my failing grades.”

“I can’t imagine you failed anything,” she replies, softening her tone. 

“It was going that way. I don’t...I don’t really know what was happening.”

“Was it all just alcohol? Or were you using party drugs?”

Alex winces. “Recreationally. Mostly pills when I wanted the world to get a little fuzzier at the edges.” Self-consciously, she scratches underneath her nostrils. “Never, like, the bad stuff.” 

“I could argue it’s all bad stuff,” Maggie counters. 

“I could argue that you’re a cop, so of course you would say that.” She settles back on Maggie’s torso. “Besides, most times I ended up looking after people. Kinda sucked on the nights that no one did the same for me.”

“You were the mom friend?”

“Oh, god no. Just the doctor friend. Made sure everyone was drinking enough water, that no one was mixing their uppers and downers. The last thing I needed was someone dropping with cardiac arrhythmia.” She lifts her head for a second. “I didn’t realise that you were so anti-drug?”

“I wasn’t, really, for a cop. But a kid OD’ed in a bathroom in Gotham, and I was the first responder and...it changed my mind.”

Alex grows quiet, sinking down onto her more fully. 

Maggie stares at the ceiling and remembers trying to perform CPR on the boy before the EMTs got there. She remembers standing in that cold tile bathroom, watching them take him away, listening to the pipes rattle and leak around her as the chaos rushed to silence and suddenly she was throwing up in one of the stalls. 

Shoving the memory to the back of her mind, desire surges through her as she realises Alex is straddling one of her thighs. She pushes her knee upwards, drawing a sharp intake of breath. Gently scratching at Alex’s head, she subtly presses her leg up.

“I probably did help bust a few of the parties you attended,” she says casually, enjoying the shift in Alex’s hips. 

“Oh yeah?” Alex says, biting her lip. 

“Sure.” Maggie runs her hands out of Alex’s hair to her shoulders, encouraging with a squeeze. “When you were at those clubs and parties, weren’t you scared about what you were taking?”

“I got scared the first time my-” Her breath hitches, her hips rolling a little firmer against Maggie’s leg “-heart raced that fast.”

“It wasn’t smart, taking any of that stuff.”

“Nothing about me was smart back then.” Alex’s voice is low and sharp, bursting against Maggie’s skin. “My grades, my decisions, my-” 

She groans as Maggie’s hands explore further. Her breasts, her stomach, her back, all the muscles clenching in harmony. Maggie drags her up into a deep kiss. Consumed by Alex’s movements, she puts her hands on Alex’s hips, pushing along with the rhythm she sets. Teeth nip at the edge of her jaw, and Maggie knows she’s close when the body above her begins to tremble.

When Alex comes, she pants out against Maggie’s neck, and then bonelessly slumps down again, shivering with aftershocks. 

Eventually, she speaks. 

“I hope that you don’t think…” Alex sighs, shame melting into her words and her body language as she rolls away to stare up at the ceiling. 

“Alex, it’s okay. You were in college. You did some hard partying.” She shrugs, searching for Alex’s hand on the dark blankets. “You’re here now.”

In the dark, Alex rolls towards her. Maggie unfolds the pillow beneath her head, and they shift closer until they’re sharing it. Neither of them say anything, and eventually Alex’s eyes flutter shut and her breathing evens out. 

Maggie presses a kiss to Alex’s hairline, whispering the phrase J’onn taught her that afternoon, wondering how many times their paths had come close before finally crossing. 

_ “M’ortuna m’uraka m’ujina.” _

**Author's Note:**

> https://archiveofourown.org/works/12675393/chapters/28896732 Go forth, and read.


End file.
